Here are some case studies showing the results my consulting has achieved for clients. The emphasis is on rankings as the clients listed below chose not to share access to their analytics and traffic log software. Future case studies will include such data, but in the meantime, you can still get a good idea the quality of my work from the stories below. (“My”? Who are you?) I also encourage you to read my blog posts featuring real search marketing case studies.

This downtown Montreal hotel has been a client since November 2006. The hotel‘s only ranking in the top 10 was for Hotel Montreal on Google, for which it ranked 5th. The hotel’s goal was to boost it’s rankings and pull in more traffic, with the goal of selling more accomodations, particularly outside of peak season.

Currently, the hotel has moved up to third on hotel Montreal. However, it is now also #1 on Yahoo for downtown Montreal hotel and downtown hotel Montreal. The hotel currently ranks #2 on MSN for hotel Montreal and in Yahoo and MSN’s top 10 or 20 for many primary keywords such as hotel Montreal.

During November and December I recommended improvements to the site. These were not implemented until the site redesign was implemented, however. (Note that this is a limitation of SEO consulting: if you don’t implement the advice you’re buying, you’ll slow down the process of optimizing your site.)

Starting in January I built links, hence the ranking improvements. Thereafter, the site hit #1 on Google for Hotel Montreal and is also ranking #6 for Montreal hotel on Google. A new site design has since been implemented, and while it has a better link structure, the old site’s URLs still exist with the result that rankings have dipped slightly. Once 301 redirects are implemented as I’ve suggested, the rankings should recover.

Update: Rankings have changed somewhat since the original writing. The hotel is #8 on hotel Montreal and Montreal hotel. However, it is now in the top 10 for Downtown Montreal Hotel, ranking 7th. It wasn’t on the first page of results previously. It is also 5th for Downtown Hotel Montreal Qc, which was yet another results page from which the hotel had previously been absent.

Better yet, applying the integrative approach that gives SEO ROI the edge on its competition, I recently rewrote the homepage copy with the aim of increasing conversions. This has proven succesful, and the hotel’s conversion rate – already above the industry average and thus with little room to improve – has increased over .5%! In the hospitality industry, where volume is important, this translates into dozens of extra bookings!

Closing note on the Hotel de Paris (Summer 08): Due to my desire to work in new verticals so as to continue learning, the Hotel and I have parted ways, amicably. As the Marketing Director, Dino Santelli, writes me: Gab, I’ll be happy to provide a reference. You tripled our online sales year over year! Thanks a lot!

WAH is a website for sale aggregator. That means that WAH takes the “for-sale” listings on other sites and lists them in its forums. The site owner’s aim was to attract more users to his forums and build an industry hub for buying and selling websites.

For WAH, I began with some keyword research. It quickly became evident that short of creating a market of people searching for “website for sale aggregator,” ranking the site for “website(s) for sale” and related terms would bring the most targeted traffic.

Following this, WAH’s owner and myself worked on changing the site’s copy, forum titles etc to better reflect its new focus on keywords.

With time and the right links, the site now ranks in Google’s top 5 for “websites for sale.” It also ranks on Google for established websites for sale and again on Google for turnkey websites for sale (Yahoo and MSN were not a priority for WAH).

You’ve probably got an idea by now for the techniques I use, so I’ll spare you the details. But you should know that the blog that shows me off to the world as an SEO Specialist happens to rank for SEO Montreal and Montreal SEO.
Better yet, the blog ranks for SEO Specialist.